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Revive & Rise

Empowering COVID Laid-Off Workers through Digital Support

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Company
Tilburg University
MSc New Media Design

Role
UX-Designer
(team of 3)

Location
Tilburg,
The Netherlands

Year
2021

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Methodology & Methods

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Rapid & Parallel Prototyping
Wireframing & Storyboards

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Tools

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Microsoft Whiteboard
Adobe XD

anchor: Scrolldowntocareerdawayportfolio

Animate On Scroll.

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1. Careerd Away?

​More and more employees were laid-off from their full-time jobs during COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only that they have to seek for a new job, they have to struggle with:
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•Lack of jobs in their field
•Insufficient professional network
•Mismatch required skill
•Possibly under mental health pressure 

This was a fictional scenario for my Master

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2. The challenge 

So, how can we build an app that helps them:
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•Feel as if they are not alone
•Build up their skills
•Boost up their mental health

And eventually, facilitate them in finding a new job.

Animate On Scroll.

Animate On Scroll.

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3. The Goal

How can a career-building app facilitate reemployment and the feeling of belonging amongst people who have been laid-off due to covid-19?”​​

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4. The Solution

Developed an app using newly honed UX design skills and deep empathy for end-users, informed by our own experience in COVID-19 isolation. We applied #Narratives, #ParallelPrototyping, and #IterativePrototyping throughout the process.

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5. Now the story visualized.

"#Yes, I loved this gradient so much that I had to keep it."

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6. So, what did we do?

Step 1: Narrative explaining context

Once we understood the problem and goal, we created stories about the current situation and desired outcome from the end-user's perspective. Each of us crafted visual representations of these stories. After a productive discussion, we outlined key elements in an Excel sheet for the final combined narrative. Check out the accompanying visuals.

Step 2: Merged Narrative

After defining the key elements for the merged narrative, I began designing it. The goal was to provide a clear overview of the end-user's current and desired situation.

Step 3 Paralel Prototyping (Individual)

The next phase was creating prototypes as part of parallel prototyping. The goal of parallel prototyping is for each designer to develop their own vision of the design. Afterward, we come together to present and discuss our individual prototypes.

Step 4: Merge Prototype

In our meeting to merge the individual prototypes, we selected the best elements by voting and combined them into one. After that, we immediately began the design process.

Step 5: The Prototype Walkthrough video

Here’s a walkthrough of the final result: the app 'Careed Away.' This app addresses three key challenges for recently unemployed individuals: alerting them to new job opportunities, providing a sense of community, and helping them build new skills.

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Outcome & Learnings

During this project, I learned valuable new prototyping methods. The parallel prototyping approach helped us generate alternative solutions, even though we had similar ideas about what we wanted to build. Each of us had different perspectives on how to present it. If we had used a traditional iterative approach, we likely would have missed features and details we might not have otherwise explored.

​A couple of things that I took away from this course:

• Never get too attached to your design (so don’t spend too much time on it)
• Parallel prototyping can be a super handy tool
• Building narratives
• Designing with Adobe XD

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